Portable electronic devices such as, for example, tablet computers, smart phones, and the like, have become very popular products. They are popular, at least in part, because they are very compact and thus very portable. The compact nature of these devices, however, also results in embedded speakers that provide poor sound quality. Typically, the portable electronic devices are unable to produce sound levels above 25 decibels at one meter. As a result, numerous wireless and wired speaker products are now available on the market for use with these portable electronic devices. Some of these external speakers are designed to rest on a table top, some are designed to be fastened to a wall, and others are designed to be clipped onto all kinds of things including the portable electronic devices themselves. While some of these external speaker products may produce sound of a much higher quality than the internal speakers, they negatively impact the very portable nature of the portable electronic devices which made them popular in the first place. No one wants to lug bulky external speakers around along with their portable electronic device.
Protective cases or covers are often used with portable electronic devices that are designed to provide protection for the devices from impact and from wear on external surfaces of the device including electronic display screens. One solution to the poor sound quality problem has been to integrate external speakers into protective covers for the portable electronic devices. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,526,142, 6,600,827, 8,256,568, and D670,911 S, U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0269091 A1, and International Publication Number WO 2012/112790 A2, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein in their entireties by reference. While these protective covers with integral external speakers may produce sound of a higher quality than the internal speakers and may be easier to transport than separate external speakers, they still negatively impact the very portable nature of the portable electronic devices which make them popular in the first place because the resulting protective covers are relatively large and bulky.
Accordingly, there is a need for more compact external sound systems for portable electronic devices.